in this case, it is the taliban. to get to your point about afghanistan being a base for al qaeda, it has been the goal of the administration to eliminate afghanistan as a base for al qaeda and similar elements. it remains to be seen if they can do that. a drawdown will make it more difficult for us to accomplish that in the long run. host: a couple comments on twitter, asking questions about positive accomplishments. guest: the surge was designed to replicate what happened in iraq. in iraq, you had a situation with the anbar awakening. you had the situation, being in, using local forces in order to gain the upper hand against the extremists, whether they were affiliated with al qaeda or were local sympathizers with saddam hussein. that basically worked from a military perspective. when you go to afghanistan, the time when general petraeus became the commander, the attempt was made to replicate what happened. the results were mixed. you had similar afghan units in several provinces that have been turned into a pretty